Messages
by Eevil Hero
Summary: One shot: Mello doesn't think of Near as human. After all, how could he? He's more a robot than a person. But something happens that starts to change Mello's opinion. Their mutual love for someone else makes Near's humanity easier to see.


Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. What a shock.

xXx

You know, I have to be honest. I never really thought of Near as a human. When we were kids, he was always this little robot of a thing… kinda scrawny and quiet and…. _weird. _Yep. That was the right word for him. I mean, even in a house full of nut-cases like the one we lived in, he was _still_ weird.

I never even realized he was just a year or two younger than I am. He always seemed… I don't even know. Different, somehow. Like he shouldn't even _have_ an age, you know? Like he was just… _there_. Never changing, never growing (except for maybe his brain), and never _feeling._

That's what I always thought when we were growing up together.

It's because of that, I think, that I chose to never get along with him.

Well, and the fact that he was always trying to prove he was smarter than I was didn't help, but I think it was more the former than the latter that kept us from working together in the end.

But very recently, something happened to… alter my opinion, if not change it. Yes… Alter is definitely the word for this situation.

This particular event occurred one year on Halloween. On L's birthday.

It was after he had left us but before his death, so I was still living in Wammy's House at the time. It was cold that year, and since we lived in the north of England it had already begun to snow. Being Russian, I'm rather used to the snow. I've never really liked it very much, but it wasn't really a problem for me.

I was sitting in the library in one of the bay windows, reading. I wasn't really paying very close attention to my book. I was trying, but every once in a while something would catch my eye, just in the corner, and I'd look to try to see what it was more clearly, but every time I would look it was gone.

The first few times, I figured it was just my imagination, but after that I _knew_ something was really out there. It was _maddening_.

So finally, I set my book down and turned, sitting cross-legged staring determinedly out the window. I hardly even blinked and held my eyes as wide open as I could without them watering.

Finally I saw it move again and this time I had it. But the more I stared, the more confused I got. Whatever it was, it was almost completely white and blended in nearly perfectly with the snow that had buried the ground for the winter. But then it hit me.

I sighed heavily, knowing I'd feel guilty later if I did nothing, grabbed my coat and left the house to enter the grounds.

"Hey! Near!" I called out when I was close enough. My boots made the snow beneath my feet crunch and I knew I was leaving clear footprints behind me. His was the only other set in the yard.

The kid turned his white-haired head to stare at me with his big gray eyes.

I walked up to him and put my coat, which was over my shoulder, around him. "You idiot. You'll freeze out here. Come on." I tried to lead him inside, but he pulled away from me and shook his head.

"Why not?" I demanded, my fists on my hips.

Near pointed to the snow and I noticed for the first time that there was something more there. On closer inspection, I realize it was writing of some kind, but it was unlike any other I had ever seen before in my life – and by that time I was fluent in 5 languages (Russian, English, Arabic, Chinese, and French if you wanted to know) many of which with odd writing systems but this was by far the strangest I had ever seen.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my arms falling to my sides limply.

"Writing a message."

I frowned slightly. "To who?"

He looked down and lightly kicked at some snow with his toe. "To L," he said quietly.

I studied the writing some more. "What language is that?" I asked, interested despite myself (and despite the cold might I add).

"L's language," he explained. "He never named it."

I looked from the snow to the sky. "Satellite surveillance?" I asked, guessing correctly which was confirmed by Near's nod. "Huh… Well, he'll see it I'm sure." I motioned for Near to follow me. "He'll contact you when he does and you can give him the rest of it. Now come on."

After another minute or so I finally persuaded him to follow me inside.

I didn't know it yet, but that stupid little incident had effected me. Something inside me had changed.

xXx

Several years went by and I had forgotten the incident. Near doing something strange and learning that L had made up his own language were neither very surprising nor worthy of much note in my mind. I had more important things to do, like study and beat Near, and order Matt around.

But another day came when both those memories would come back to me. And that, not the first day, is when my opinion of Near truly changed.

As soon as I learned of L's death, I was determined to leave Wammy's House. No way in _hell_ was I working with that big-headed twit Near. Nu-uh. So I had packed my bags and was on my way out when something stopped me.

I heard the clicking of a lighter and saw a spark or two from the corner of my eye and instinctively went towards it. I figured it had to be Matt since the boy had recently taken up smoking. I wanted to at least say goodbye to him if he was there, so I made my way over. But when I got there, it was something I didn't expect.

Near was alone, standing in a small clearing beneath some trees, attempting to light a piece of paper on fire.

I sighed, shook my head, and dropped my bag on the ground. I shoved my hands in my pockets and, after a moment's debate, approached him.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, sounding slightly bored.

His back was to me and he didn't turn. "…Sending a message," he said very quietly. And by that I mean more quietly than usual.

I felt my usual smirk fade away into a frown of confusion. "To who?" I asked, more gently and less sarcastically now. This conversation reminded me of another one, but I couldn't quite remember when I'd had it or whom I had had it with.

"To… To L," he whispered.

"…Near?" I could hardly believe what I was almost certain I was seeing.

Near's hand was shaking and he couldn't seem to get the lighter lit. The letter in his other hand trembled violently.

When he turned to look at me, there were tears streaming down his face.

"Do you think," he asked shakily, "that if I burn this, the smoke will take the message to L in heaven?"

I couldn't believe my eyes. Or my ears, to be honest. So I did the most logical thing I could think of to do.

I reached out my hands and took Near's things from him. I easily started the lighter and, without a second thought, caught the paper on fire. It curled in my hand as it burned and the spiraling letters slowly disappeared one by one.

I knew I had seen the language on the paper before, and after a moment remembered that Near had explained to me what it was several years before. It was L's language – the language only L and Near understood.

"Yes Near. I think it will get to L. And…" I had to stop before I could repeat my words from so many years before. Not because I didn't remember them, but because it was so painful for me. "And he'll contact you when he does."

I didn't know what else to do then, so I turned, grabbed my bag and started to go.

"Mello!" he called after me.

I turned, a little surprised. Near had never tried to stop me from leaving before.

"I know you said you don't want to work with me but… help me defeat Kira." He swallowed hard. "Help me avenge L."

I stared in his eyes for a long time, then let my characteristic smirk slide back in to place. "Yeah," I said. "You betcha."

That was the last time we ever spoke of L. In fact, that was really the last time we spoke at all. But it didn't matter. What had needed to be said had been said. What needed to be done had been done.

And, I think the most important point had been made.

In the back of my mind, at the very least, I knew that Near was human after all. Our mutual love of L had shown me that. Because no one could ever cry like that unless they had loved L even half as much as I had. And, though I hated to admit it, I knew that that day Near and I became friends. The same day that we became rivals.

The first day of the end of my life.

So I guess it didn't really matter that it turned out that Near was human. It never did us any good anyway. But hey… it was still nice to know.

xXx

A/N: This is just kind of to kill time right now. I mean, I really should be sleeping – and by that I mean I'm exhausted – but I'm talking to my future room mate online and, more important, my beloved Vice Captain, so I can't go to bed yet. Yay!

Anyway. Sorry for the lack of updating on Angel of Wammy's. I have the next few updates planned and everything, I just haven't had the force of will to actually write them down yet. Soon, children, soon.

Thanks for reading, as always. I love you all!

- E.H.


End file.
